This is our first topic on a new must-listen podcast: Important Question? where we explore and debate such taboos with the profundity and absurdity and hilarity they warrant. Ensuing episodes will examine other grey areas soaking in our collective grey matter, like, I dunno … ruining a child’s Christmas(?) or taking a bullet for a stranger(?).

Alongside myself, the devil’s original advocate (author, BookTuber, marketer) Caleb J Ross brings his perverse wit and flexible morality (and web hosting) to the dialogue. Will it end in aural fisticuffs or virtual high-fives? Who knows. Either way, you’ll come away with the requisite ammunition to argue these topics later with your racist grandmother.

Episodes post weekly or biweekly and are 15-20 minutes: more Adult Swim than sitcom. And yes, that’s me performing the theme song. I’ve linked the first ten below to give you an idea of the kinds of topics we cover. Find the complete episode guide at ImportantQuestionPodcast.com. Get interactive, Like us on Facebook.com/ImportantQuestion for even more fun media and discussion.

]]>Gas Up the Stair Carhttp://gordonhighland.com/2013/05/gas-up-the-stair-car/
Wed, 15 May 2013 22:51:06 +0000http://gordonhighland.com/?p=2665I was gonna do this whole post about evolving media distribution, and how I dig the new Netflix model because it allows me to shotgun series the way I prefer. But I already pretty much covered that with my House of Cards write-up over at ManArchy. And really, I’m such an Arrested Development fanboy that this needs no introduction. Pure excitement.

]]>Trite Tropeshttp://gordonhighland.com/2009/06/trite-tropes/
http://gordonhighland.com/2009/06/trite-tropes/#commentsMon, 01 Jun 2009 21:17:00 +0000http://gordonhighland.com/?p=162Cinema is a language with its own conventions. The audience must be familiar with certain patterns, even unconsciously, for the transfer of visuals to register properly. Establishing a scene with a wide shot to get our bearings, not crossing the 180-degree axis, keeping the flow of action moving in a single screen direction – folks become disoriented when these conventions are broken. However, a number of story-specific shots have become part of our shared language as well, and, effective as they may be, I could happily go the rest of my life without ever seeing any of the following tired compositions on screen again.

• the toilet-cam point of view as an interrogated face is dunked into it

• establishing a crime scene by tracking the unspooling of yellow police tape

• cutting to the defendant flinching as the judge’s gavel cracks. See also: flinching mourners at a 21-gun salute

• bolting upright into camera after coming out of a nightmare

• a train approaching and passing over the camera for no apparent reason

• the final-second resignation on a bad-guy’s face just before a bomb blows him to pieces

• closing a dead compatriot’s eyes with a hand

• the awkward elevator ride with cheesy muzak as a moment of comic relief during an action sequence

• full-screen “access granted” computer terminal graphics

• the (unrealistic) black matte for binoculars point of view. See also: in softcore, the voyeur watching through their video camera will somehow see a scene assembled from coverage of wide, medium, and close shots.

• pan to the fireplace and defocus as the stars make love on the bed. Ironically, this can be called “going soft.”

• macro-focusing to the barrel of a gun pointed at camera

• sliding someone down the length of a bar in a fight, taking out all manners of glassware in their path

• refrigerator point of view as someone rummages through it. See also: medicine cabinets. Guess I just hate POV shots in general unless they represent a person.

• a room whose light level remains nearly the same once the lights are turned out. Now it’s just blue.

]]>http://gordonhighland.com/2009/06/trite-tropes/feed/2Meth Lab for Flutiehttp://gordonhighland.com/2008/11/meth-lab-for-flutie/
http://gordonhighland.com/2008/11/meth-lab-for-flutie/#commentsTue, 25 Nov 2008 04:26:00 +0000http://gordonhighland.com/?p=152Shamelessly pilfered from a variety of sources, here’s another collection of fake band names that made me giggle like a seventh grader. Some of these will turn up on MySpace profiles soon enough. I’d warn you about the offensive content, but I’m sure you’re desensitized by now.

The show everyone’s talking about.Everyone being those in our programming department whose jobs are on the line. It’s been a ratings disappointment despite the buzz cash we poured into ads and promotion.

See the show critics are calling “X.”We doomed it with a bad time slot. Also, I told you, not everything we produce is reality-based.

The surprise hit of the season.We underestimated audience tastes and only ordered eight episodes.

• Borrowed time and stolen moments are those of which we take the most ownership.

• Dan Brown’s cure for writer’s block is to hang upside down. However, there is no known cure for ingesting his actual writing.

• Speeding up the music in a Cialis commercial creates a porn soundtrack. Porn in which man and woman bathe in separate tubs. Outdoors. What we can’t see is that his is filled with nearly four hours’ worth of ice.

• If Jesus ever does return, no one would even give him a book deal. He’d have better luck resurrecting as Heath Ledger.

• Chinese Democracy will achieve a better global reception than America’s version has.

• Most cameras tell the truth. Context is the lie. Editors distort and manipulate truth for a living.

• Drummers may not get as much tail as singers, yet their rates of venereal disease remain equal.

• Sometimes a loose G-string actually results in a high pitch.

• Reading without suspicion is more dangerous than blogging without authority.

• Judging a band’s quality by their MySpace playlist is like holding a wine-tasting in the restroom.

• An actress’s shelf life requires many more additives and preservatives than her male counterparts’.

• Photoshop dermatology is far more effective than the real thing. And less painful than gastric bypass surgery.

• No one ever really wants to hear a bass solo except for other bass players. And even they’ll deny it.

• Art needn’t be appreciated to meet its definition.

• Twenty-four frames per second, 24 hours in a day. Coincidence? Yes.

• No one ever blamed a verbal gaffe on a microphone malfunction.

• Most writers are to social skills what greeting cards are to the illiterate.

]]>Morbid Georgehttp://gordonhighland.com/2008/06/morbid-george/
Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:06:00 +0000http://gordonhighland.com/?p=139A sad, sad day in the kingdom. George Carlin dead at age 71. I had the pleasure of seeing him live (rhymes with dive, not give – but both, really), as did many, thanks to his grueling tour schedule. Especially in later years, he loved to poke fun at Death, and I can only imagine what stipulations his will demanded. Here are a some morbid quotables clipped shamelessly from the man’s books.

“I enjoy watching reruns of Saturday Night Live and counting all the dead people.”

“A graveyard always has to start with a single body. Unless the local people get lucky and there’s a nice big bus accident in town.”

“When I was a kid, I can remember saying ‘cross my heart and hope to die.’ I’d like to confess now that I never really meant that second part.

“After you die, your stuff becomes your ‘personal effects.'”

“I’m always relieved when someone’s delivering a eulogy and I realize I’m listening to it.”

“If you find some time left on a parking meter, I think you should be able to add it to the end of your life. Minus the time you spent on hold.”

“I made a bargain with the devil. I would get famous, and he would get to fuck my sister.”

“I finally accepted Jesus. Not as my personal savior, but as a man I intend to borrow money from.”

“When a ghostwriter dies, how many people come back?”

“Imagine meeting your maker and finding out it’s Frito-Lay.”

“Heart disease changed my eating habits, but I still cook bacon just for the smell.”

“Life is a near-death experience.”

“If I had my choice of how to die, I would be sitting on the crosstown bus and suddenly burst into flames.”

“The IQ and the life expectancy of the average American just passed each other going in opposite directions.”

“I hope the world ends during the daytime. I want to watch the “film at 11.”

“Live and let live, that’s what I say. Anyone who can’t understand that should be killed. It’s always worked well in my family.”

“Just once I’d like to see a high-speed funeral procession. Maybe someday a race-car driver will put that in his will.”

“I’ve decided to donate only my prostate and my testicles, with the stipulation that they go to a feminist.”

“A great epitaph: I want everyone to know it was great being alive. I especially enjoyed fucking and going to the movies.“

“One nice thing about being dead is that you immediately become eligible to appear on stamps and money.”

“I hope reincarnation is a fact so I can come back and fuck teenagers again.”

]]>Promoted Roadieshttp://gordonhighland.com/2008/06/promoted-roadies/
Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:12:00 +0000http://gordonhighland.com/?p=138I’ve posted before about my fascination with unusual band names, yet I can never seem to pull the trigger on them for my own usage. And even though this is the kind of material that will probably get me in trouble, I thought I’d share a few of the more offensive rejects we considered for my current male/female duo, Winebox.

]]>Sexual Reelinghttp://gordonhighland.com/2008/06/sexual-reeling/
http://gordonhighland.com/2008/06/sexual-reeling/#commentsMon, 16 Jun 2008 19:59:00 +0000http://gordonhighland.com/?p=137Not long after The Matrix lit up the big screen, I caught a late-night B-movie on Skinemax called The Sexual Matrix. Twenty minutes and five refractory periods later it dawned upon me that one could bring a whole new level of meaning to traditional favorites simply by adding Sexual to the title. Like so:

]]>http://gordonhighland.com/2008/06/sexual-reeling/feed/1Eff Lovehttp://gordonhighland.com/2008/06/eff-love/
Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:47:00 +0000http://gordonhighland.com/?p=136This is one of my personal favorite timekillers. Understanding the perverse origins of the term rock ‘n’ roll and also knowing how people are so often afraid to say what they really mean, here’s a little game: simply substitute the word Fuck instead of Love in any song title, and you probably have something much closer to the lyricist’s original vision. Here are a few to get you started:

You’ve Lost that Lovin’ FeelingLove Me Two TimesLove in an ElevatorShower Me With Your LoveYou Make Loving FunLovin’ You’s a Dirty JobWill You Still Love Me TomorrowLove of a LifetimeLove Her MadlySince I’ve Been Loving YouEndless LoveLove ShackCan’t Make You Love MeI Can Love You BetterLove Me TenderOnce You’ve Loved SomebodyLove in the AfternoonAnd I Love HerLove the One You’re WithIf You Love Somebody Set Them FreeLove the Way You Love Me BabyKeep on Loving YouJustify My LoveCan’t Stop Loving YouLove GunDamn I Wish I Was Your LoverNo Ordinary LoveCan’t Buy Me LoveBecause You Loved MeCan’t Get Enough of Your Love, BabeMuskrat Love